Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a great studio lighting starter pack that includes two soft-boxes, two light-stands and two 5500 Kelvin lightbulbs. The soft boxes are expanded/collapsed like an umbrella, and are stored in sleeve pouches. Everything is neatly stowed away in an included duffel bag. The duffel bag has a little bit of space left, so I added a power strip and extension cord, so I don't have to look for these things when I setup the kit. The setup is quick and easy: extend the light stands, attach the soft-boxes either vertically or horizontally, adjust the angle, screw in the lightbulbs and attach the front diffusion cover with velcro. Plug it into a socket, switch on and you have a beautiful neutral soft light. The whole setup/breakdown takes less than 5 minutes. The lightbulbs produce a constant light source at 5500K, which is first reflected by a silvery material in the back of the box, and then diffused a great deal by the front diffusion material, producing a soft and pleasing light. The boxes are quite large, which is needed to produce a soft light. The constant light source lets you see live how it hits the subject and how the shadows fall. The positions of the soft boxes can easily be adjusted to achieve the desired look. For less than $60 this is really a great deal, it includes everything that is needed to start with studio lighting, for example to photograph products, macro or portraits. The constant light is also much easier to use than dealing with studio flashes. I would even recommend it for folks who might just take photos with their smartphone. I shot the example photos of the vases with the positions of the lights in front left and right of the subjects. The black background are two sheets of black poster board.